Abstract
The CORONA satellite imagery acquired in 1967 enabled retrieving the initial geomorphic landscape of Al-Aziziyah valley which comprises mountain ridges, extended mountain ridges, isolated hills, and alluvial plains. The CORONA image implied a minimal landuse features in Al-Aziziyah valley. On the other hand, the QuickBird image acquired in 2005 demonstrated extensive urban expansion on the expense of the initial morphologic features. The various urban features have occupied -62% of Al-Aziziyah valley. The residential areas and road networks are the major landuse features occupying -39% of the entire study area. The governmental, hotels, educational, and the commercial features along with the public service locations represented -21% of the study area. The QuickBird image acquired in 2005 enabled mapping the bare lands located among the various landuse features along with the mountainous areas that are under preparation for future urban expansions. Both the bare lands and the planned mountainous areas represented -18% of the study area. All urban expansions have occurred either over, through, or instead the various initial morphologic features resulting in reshaping the physiographic characteristics of the landscape of the study area. (C) 2019 National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0/).